New guy to cnc, cad, cam, and most other things

[Dooleypster (Peter Dooley)]

Bummer, broke my first bit. Turned off the spindle on the spindle controller for tool change…only to forget to turn it back on. Dumb! Does anyone else do this? Should I not worry about the spindle coming on during tool change?

What sites do you go to to get free files, drawings, etc?

Are layers simply levels of depth in pockets?

I have an open vector (I trimmed a line out that I did not want). Now, even though the vectors all go orange when I select them with the shift key…I cannot get the lines to join. I looked very closely at the intersections and they all look good, but the open (magenta) color will not go away. frustrated.

[mhotchin (Michael Hotchin)]

For the last, select all those vectors, then on the left there will be an icon for ‘Join Vectors’.

Second icon in:

[Dooleypster (Peter Dooley)]

Thanks Mike, i’ll give that a try…

P

[WillAdams (William Adams (Carbide 3D))]

It is best practice to disable the spindle for tool changes.

We have a file sharing site:

CutRocket

and there is:

https://elements.carbide3d.com/

and previously when we discussed this:

Where to source "free" files SVG/DXF

Well, there’s a clipart library w/ Carbide Create: [image] [image] see: https://elements.carbide3d.com/ and there’s also: and Bob Warfield, of CNC Cookbook fame has: And the community had the following notes on the wiki: Often, clip art will be done in stroked lines which are not suited to most CAM programs — the solution is expanding the strokes and unioning them: Converting line art for drawing https://openclipart.org Lotus Mandala Vector Art Pattern Files | FreePatternsArea h…

but see:

Converting line art for drawing

Often clip art is drawn as a series of stacked stroked and filled outline, e.g., http://clipartist.net/svg/minimalistic-ray-gun-logo-black-white-line-art-svg/ which looks line, but is a confusing mess when one views it in outline mode: [inkscape_1] The solution is to expand the strokes, and punch out the white fills. In Inkscape this is done by: Path | Object to Path [inkscape_2] Then break everything apart (it is important to work in View | Display Mode | Outline) using Path | Break Ap…

Layers are an optional organizational aid. They may be associated with toolpaths, which can be quite nice for complex projects, and I’ve also used them to organize files in various ways.

As noted, there is a “Join Vectors” command which should work to join things — if it doesn’t, upload the file and we will look into this with you.

[Zman (MICHAEL ZEMANEK)]

Safety first… @WillAdams is right.

I have a Bit Runner that turns off my router during a bit change. I trust it to work correctly. If it fails I believe it fails in the off mode. If I am wrong, I have myself to blame.

Good Luck

[Dooleypster (Peter Dooley)]

Thanks Man, I understand your point…be careful.

[CullenS (Cullen Simpson)]

When changing bits I “always” hit the button on the BitRunner interlock so that even if some rogue AI bot decided to have fun the router wouldn’t spin up.

“Always” except when I don’t.

[AndyP (Andy)]

I place a pause or wait for input in the post processor so i get a chance to check spindle is spinning.